


After the End of the World

by frankenstien



Category: The End Of The Fucking World (TV)
Genre: Multi, The End of the World
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-03
Updated: 2018-04-23
Packaged: 2019-03-13 00:54:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13559244
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/frankenstien/pseuds/frankenstien
Summary: This is a follow up fan fiction of the Netflix series "The End of the F***ing World", so it definately contains spoilers. I figured I would write my own aftermath ending of this, and will do a couple of chapters maybe. I couldn't find a category for it. Anything after a line of ~ will be in Alyssa's point of view in the narrative, while anything after - will be in third person. I hope you enjoy how I imagine the aftermath of the story plays out.





	1. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alyssa, DC Darego and Noon all head to the police station. Phil is at the hospital with his son, and Gwen starts to think about what has lead up to this moment as she makes her way to the station.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The bullet hit him in the head. But luckily, even though I didn't realize it at the time, the bullet didn't fatally hit him. All I knew at that moment in that moment in time that the cops were holding me down, as someone else was shooting at James as he was running away, reaching the end of the fucking world. Then the bullet hit him, I saw the blood, and I gave up.

I never got a break from the police that night.  I didn't ride back with DC Noon, which was a shame, because instead I had to ride back with DC Teri Darego, a terrifying woman who apparently prefers to take the reins in operations. The ride back was silent, me mostly staring off out of the window of the car, or me staring right into her eyes through the rearview mirror. Only once did she try talking to me. 

"I don't know why Noon decided she would try and pull off something like that." 

"She's a bloody idiot," I responded. Eye contact. 

"Are you alright?" 

"Fuck off." 

"Don't tell me to fuck off, I'm trying to be civilized here." 

And with that I didn't respond, and she didn't try talking to me again. 

It was a pity, I'm sure under different circumstances I would have come to like her. Our destination was not my home, there was no stops for sight seeing, we went right up to a place where I would be talking to Darego about what happened. A great ending to my fucking day. 

\-------------------------------------------

DC Teri Darego watched as some officers escorted Alyssa inside. She didn't understand what was going through Alyssa's head, and in an attempt to do what she knew her partner would prefer her to do, which was being nice, she got a backhanded answer. She could only shake her head, knowing what was lying ahead of Alyssa's future.

Darego had started to head into the building, but not before a car had pulled up causing her to stop. She knew who was in that car, and she was not happy about it at all. But she learned the past couple of days that she could not keep quiet and keep walking, so instead she took a deep breath, turned around, and faced her partner, DC Eunice Noon, as she stepped out of the car. With the head injury she had gotten from earlier someone else had driven her, but it didn't stop her from being the woman that Noon is. 

Noon made a bee line to Darego, her body language clearly reading that she was not in her good cop attitude that she always seems to be, and while it may have been angry was not the kind of jealous… good friend that her sour attitudes usually seem to follow as well. No, in fact she was actually mad at Darego, and Darego had her same usually disappointed face as the two women stood in front of each other and had a mental showdown that could only be seen by those who see the brawl between their unforgiving eyes.

"I can't believe you tried to pull something like that," Darego nearly scolded the other. 

"I want to be the first to talk to Alyssa..." 

"Oh no," Darego cut Noon off both verbally, and keeping her from entering the building. "You are now part of their victim list, seeing how they attacked you. That, and may I remind you of what you did that lead up to that?" Darego nearly raised a brow at Noon. 

"It almost worked. I would've had it if her father didn't go out of his way to try and betray his own daughter." 

"Betray? He was probably trying to help protect her from _him_. Have you forgotten what this case is about? _Murder_ , Eunice. The boy murdered someone, and she is possibly an accomplice."

There was a moment of silence as both recognized the truth behind each other's words without acknowledging it. "Are Alyssa's parents and James' father coming down for this?" 

"They have been notified. Phil is heading towards the hospital to see his son, and Alyssa's parents will be here later tonight." 

"Is he going to be alright?"

"I don't know, but I think it would be the best for Alyssa if he did. If she didn't do anything with Mr. Koch, then her sentencing will have to be with the robbery and assault." 

Noon nodded, and seemed to find a little bit of comfort in that for what she got. The two detectives stood there in silence, everything that had been happening recently was easily up for grabs for conversation, but neither of them mentioned anything. Instead, Darego opened the door to the building and went inside, looking behind her for her partner to follow behind. 

 

 

Phil didn't know what to say or do when he got to the hospital. He held the picture in his hand tightly, starting to bend and nearly tear it but being careful not to as he sat next to his son in his hospital bed. James was not conscious, nor would he remember anything that his father would say or do while he was like this. The doctors had worked on James' wound, and now it was up in arms as to if he would be able to recover or not. 'James is a strong kid,' Phil thought to himself. 'He will recover, he has to recover.' 

After letting a few tears drip down his face, Phil wiped them off and took a breath. "James... I," he started, not sure what to say. The last time he had done anything like this was when he was given time to mourn over his late wife's dead body. The same emotions was rushing over him, but this time he had hope. "I'm sorry for anything I did, James. I'm sorry for calling you gay in front of your girlfriend, I should've apologized sooner but I thought she just didn't get the joke and you did."

He looked down at the photograph of the three of them; father, mother, and son. Back then, he had no idea his wife would do what she had done. And now he didn't know that his son would do what he did. He couldn't wrap his head around the fact that he does not understand the people he cares the most about in this world. He started to fix the photograph, straightening it out and working out what little creases he could. "You're all that I have. I don't care what you did anymore, I don't care about the car and I'm not worried about... the case. Just come back, James. I don't know what I would do without you." 

Phil looked up at his son, who did not respond in anyway, shape, or form. His eyes that usually lit up when he saw his son, the ones that always make sure that he gave his son approval and acceptance, now fall onto his son with extreme sorrow. That hasn't happened since the death of James' mother, but even then he still made sure than his son was given some hope in the trying time. He realizes now that it didn't work, and his masking of his lonliness and dependence on his son being there was a terrible mistake. If only he made sure that James knew that before everything had happened, even though part of him wants to believe that his son already knew. 

 

 

Gwen stayed silent in the car as Tony drove. There was no music playing, he didn't want any music to be playing while he drove. They just dropped the twins off with Gwen's mother to take care while they went down to 'take care of Alyssa'. Gwen concentrated on what she wanted to say to Alyssa when she saw her, but also wanted to say something that she knew Alyssa wouldn't immediately reject. She wanted to apologize, no, she wanted to do more than apologize but what could she say? She knew that she was part as to why Alyssa ran off with that strange boy. She knew that if she acted like her mother more than some care taker, then her precious Alyssa would not be in this mess. 

Gwen had started to rethink some aspects of her life, but she knew it was too late to do anything now. While she wanted to focus her hatred for her frayed relationship with her husband on her daughter, she knew the entire time it was truly Tony to be at fault. He was controlling, he wanted his family, and Alyssa was not apart of that family. Not even that, but as Alyssa had grown older, she noticed that her daughter was becoming something that was nearly eye candy for Tony. She was jealous of that, but she should never have been mad at Alyssa, especially when her daughter did everything to reject Tony as a father and as anything she wanted to know. 

But Tony was her answer to give herself and Alyssa what they needed, a house over their head and food on the table. Yes, he may be controlling, but she was willing to risk it to make sure her daughter had her needs. She risked a lot of things to make sure her daughter had someone. She even went out of her way to make sure that she felt love coming from her actual father, even if he never bothered to try no matter how much she asked. But to see her daughter seem a little happier to get that card every year, she kept doing it. She's not sure why she put his last address in the last card, but she was glad she did. 

But for now, she stayed quiet as she looked out of the window of Tony's car, heading down near where her previous husband lived. She was going to see her daughter again, and for once, she's making a decision not to have Tony completely involved in it. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Darego gets Alyssa to start talking, and Leslie meets a man as he leaves the hospital.

\----------------------------------------------

Darego didn’t start the interrogation off with why Alyssa ran away, nor with what happened with the murder. She started it off with of all the places to go, why she would go to Leslie’s house.  
“I didn’t realize he was truly the awful fuck he is until after we were there, he was the least awful fuck I knew other than James. Where else was I supposed to go?” was Alyssa’s response to question.  
“And how did James feel about it?” Darego was relatively calm, part of her with the knowledge that Noon was watching, and if she wasn’t then she knew once she found out if she wasn’t calm with Alyssa she wouldn’t hear the end of it.  
“I don’t know,” Alyssa looked off to the far corner of the room to avoid looking at the detective in any way. “James was difficult to understand. He just went with things. When I told him I wanted to go to my fathers and he could come with if he wanted, he said okay. And that was after the dog murdering pedophile.”  
Darego didn’t know who Alyssa was talking about, even though Alyssa thought that she knew that, other than stealing Phil’s car, that man was the first victim to Alyssa and James’ crime spree. When Alyssa looked back up at the detective, and she realized that Darego didn’t know what she was talking about, they both realized that there was more to this story than two stolen cars, robberies, and hit and runs.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  
Fuck. I just dug myself further into this hole that I’m in. I watched as the she struggled to grasp the concept of what I had just said in her mind. “Dog… murdering pedophile?”  
Just play it cool Alyssa, maybe we can get away without trouble on this one. “After we crashed the car, some middle-aged man with a potato baby offered to give us a ride. We stopped at some restaurant and he forced James to touch him. He also buys dogs to murder other dogs.”  
“A dog fighter?”  
“Yeah, for money.” I mean, shouldn’t it be clear about how wrong that is? Why is it that every person I’ve talked to has no problem with the fact that people buy dogs to murder them.  
“I’m sorry, I’m having trouble wrapping my head around when this happened. We don’t exactly have good time frames for what you and James did before the murder.”  
“Then why did you not ask me about what we did from the beginning?” I felt that if I made myself seem a little smarter than her it would make me feel better. I relaxed a little and cocked my head, proving to her my point.  
She did not like that. Her response after giving me a moment to take that back was to straighten up and place both hands folded on the table. “Alright then. How did it start if that’s where you want to begin so much.”  
I realized my mistake when I noticed the look in her eyes, and began to sink a little in my chair looking away again. “Fine.” I looked around the blank room for a moment. Everything from the beginning. Where do I even start, I mean it’s all too much to try and explain in one sitting. I could make it shorter, oh but who knows when the truth would come out and if it would… I could really go for a moment alone and lie down and let things escape and…. Wait. There it is, the start of this story. “I get these moments when I have to lie down because everything feels, sort of, too much. And I look up, and I see the blue, or the grey, or the black, and I feel myself melting into it…”  
“I’m sorry, what does this have to do with anything.”  
“Did you want me to start from the beginning or not? Because I can just sit here and not say anything if you would rather.”  
We stared at each other. Truthfully, I was buying myself some time to get the beginning of this whole story together. “Carry on,” she said and went back into her listening position.  
“And for a split second, I feel free, and happy. Innocent. Like a dog. Or an alien. Or a baby.”

\------------------------------------------------------

Leslie was done with the hospital bullshit. He didn’t like hospitals, he felt they were for unfit people, which he was not part of. Or for having children, which he always had a somewhat displeasure for. Young children, he did not very much appreciate. They had no idea how the world worked, and would be tricked by society into thinking that certain things are alright but lord forbid they actually learn the truths of this world. Like his daughter Alyssa, he knew he had to teach her how the world truly worked.  
Alyssa. His own flesh and blood. His daughter, precious little girl who grew up to become a criminal, and not the kind that he can stand up for. If she dealt drugs, as long as she’s smart about it he wouldn’t care. If she did sex work, well it would be better than what she ended up doing. He felt betrayed almost, that his own daughter used him to try and get away with murder.  
Leslie received medical attention and aid for his stab wound, and after a while of check ups managed to convince everyone he was fine enough to leave the hospital. Reluctantly, the doctors allowed him to check out, giving him a pair of crutches with instructions to use them until his wound is completely healed.  
As Leslie began to leave the hospital, he spotted a man sitting in the hallway with his hands covering his face. At first, he just thought it was some sad bloke letting stress over come him. He passed, but something in Leslie had told him no, go talk to him. He turned to look at the man again and debated if he should have a little chat or go on his merry way. He figured there would be no damage done to talk to the man and sat next to him.  
“What’s up with you?” Leslie asked, to which man looked up as if he was just coming back to reality.  
“A lot, actually. But I just hope my son gets better,” the man was a little quiet, and looked back towards one of the rooms before back at Leslie.  
“Is he sick with something?”  
“No, he was shot, and I don’t know if he’s going to recover. I need him to recover, I don’t have anyone else left.”  
Leslie shook his head. “Another bloody shooting. I tell ya, even though I have one for protection when I need it, I hate guns. They’re a quick death and used by power crazed people.” Leslie nodded somewhat to Leslie’s statement, not sure exactly how to take it. “My daughter, Alyssa, has this friend who got shot earlier today. He’s probably dead, and from everything that happened god knows if he has a parent that really cares.”  
There was a moment of silence between them as the man took realization to who Leslie is. “Did you say your daughter’s name is Alyssa?”  
“Yeah.”  
“Her friend, he doesn’t happen to be named James?” Leslie nodded, to which the man took some bittersweet joy into that knowledge. “That’s my son.”  
Leslie had to take a moment to think. Multiple thoughts went through Leslie’s head, such as James definitely had to get his looks from his mother and how in the world did a man such as the one in front of him have a son like James. “Well, it’s good to know he does have a parent who cares.” He held out his hand. “I’m Leslie.”  
“Phil,” he grabbed Leslie’s hand and shook it. “What happened to Alyssa?”  
“She’s with the police for questioning. You do know what they did, right?”  
“I’m aware, I’m trying to understand why he would do such a thing. I was told he admitted to it.” This seemed to take a small toll on Phil.  
Leslie looked around and back at Phil as he started to feel uncomfortable in the hospital once more. “Do you want to go for a drink?”  
“I think I need one about now.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gwen and Tony reach the police station, reuniting Gwen with her daughter. Noon and Darego take a minute to talk, as do Leslie and Phil.

\----------------------------------------------

 

Tony pulled the car up to the police station and looked over at his wife. Gwen looked about ready to go inside, however was scared about what Alyssa would say or do when she sees her. Tony, knowing Gwen well enough to assume this, decided that he did not want his wife giving Alyssa another chance. “I’m not going in.”

“What?” Gwen looked over Tony with shock.

“She wasn’t my daughter to begin with, and she won’t ever be now.” He looked over at Gwen with a dead serious face.

Gwen pursed her lips together and looked back at the station. She understood where Tony was getting at. “I still want to see her.”

“So she could threaten you? Tell you how much of this is caused by something you never did?”

“She is still my daughter, Tony.”

There was an uncomfortable moment of silence between the two. “Gwen, we have a pair of twins at home. _We_ will raise them properly. They are good kids, and they will remain good kids.”

“What are you getting at?”

“I will not be Alyssa’s father anymore, Gwen. I…”

“How dare you?”

“How dare I? _How dare I?_ ” Tony leaned over to Gwen in a dominant manner and not one that Gwen was fond of. “I took you and her in. I attempted to raise her, I gave her food and a roof over her head. And **_this_** is how she repays me? This is how she treats you?”

Gwen had an all too familiar moment of fear with her husband. All she could do was lean against the car door a little and stare wide eyed at him.

“If you want to see her fine, see if I care,” Tony leaned back and looked away from her in a guilt tripping way. “At least I want to make sure that my kids are in a safe environment where they won’t end up like that.”

This usually works. Tony knew exactly how to guilt trip Gwen into what he wants. He got her to stop working to be a house wife, the closest he’ll get to a trophy wife anyway. He knew that Gwen was smart, so he never tried to outsmart her in the relationship, but he knew exactly how to play her emotions. It got easier when they had the twins. And now if he could just get rid of the biggest problem, he would have complete control.

But something inside of Gwen had changed. She had put Leslie’s address in her birthday card. Why? She doesn’t know, she just knew if felt like the write thing to do. She had gotten birthday cards to say they were from Alyssa’s father every year, because she knew that he is the man that her daughter looked up to. She knew that she needed to keep up the illusion of having Leslie seem like a great dad to Alyssa, she knew that Alyssa needed it especially since Alyssa did not like her. Alyssa took that address and went all the way down to see her father in her moment of need, and even he couldn’t protect her. If there was anyone that Alyssa would like now, it would have to be that strange James kid, but now he was in the hospital on the brink of death, and Alyssa has no one. Gwen would not let Alyssa have no one to be there.

Gwen put her hand on the car door handle, taking in a deep breath as she made her first move in a long time against Tony’s wishes. “I’m going to go talk to Alyssa. I’ll be out soon.”

As Gwen slowly stepped out of the car, Tony looked over in shock and in anger. “Don’t do this Gwen! She’s only going to hurt you more!” He yelled out at her, but it didn’t stop Gwen from walking inside the building, feeling the sweet relief of independence.

 

 

Noon was observing Alyssa’s recount of everything that had happened. They haven’t gotten far, only talking about who Alyssa was as a person and how she and James had gotten close. Then the party that Tony had mentioned when Alyssa decided to run away. She told them about Tony, and that Alyssa could not take it any more so she went off to James’ house. That’s when there was a knock on the door for Noon.

She got up and answered the door, to find another officer and Gwen. “Oh, hello.” She gave a small nod to Gwen.

“She wants to talk to her daughter for a moment. I’m not sure if now is a good time or not,” the officer stated.

“Oh yes, it’s fine. Thank you.” The officer left for a moment and Noon looked back at Gwen. “Did you come all this way alone?”

“No, Tony took me down here.”

“Is he not coming in?”

Gwen only shook her head. “Can I see Alyssa? I just want to talk to her for a moment.”

“Sure, let me see if now is a good time.”

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

The more I talked, the easier it became for me to talk to Darego. She was actually polite about it, asked a couple questions here and there, and when I talked about the party something told me that she understood exactly what I was feeling. It just felt like I was talking to a friend, and I really needed that.

“James seemed a little off the hook, and it was probably because I was a couple hours late. But I didn’t care. I was upset, a little horny, and just wanted to get it over with. I took my shirt off and went and sat on the couch, and…”

My story was interrupted when there was a knock on the door. I got quiet and looked over at Darego. “Excuse me for one moment.”

She got up and walked over to the door, and DC Noon was on the other side. The two talked for a moment quietly, something that I could not hear from where I was sitting. After a moment, Darego looked back over at me. “Someone is here to see you, if that’s alright.”

Someone is here to see me? Who in the world would come see me right now. Whoever it was, I didn’t really care to see, but it does give me some time off from talking about things. “Fine.” I looked towards the opposite wall from me and crossed my arms a little.

I could hear Darego and Noon walk out, and someone else walk in. I didn’t bother to look. Well, at least until I heard my mother call my name.

My mother, the one woman who was too scared to confront me about anything, the one who had married some snob and began to ditch me in favor of the newest addition to the family, the woman who I never thought truly cared stood before me at the door. And some emotion came over me, something that I didn’t expect. I thought about what I learned about Dad and the cards. I saw the look of sorrow in my mothers eyes, and the air around her was not her normal self. All I knew was that I had the need to hug my mother and cry, and I did exactly that.  

 

\--------------------------------------

 

Noon had returned to the previous room she was in with Darego just in time to see that moment between Alyssa and her mom. “Wow,” Darego said after a moment of silence watching the two hug each other. “And she was just talking about how much she despised the woman.”

“Everyone hates their mother,” Noon looked over at Darego who looked back. “For a while anyway.”

Darego shook her head a little. “Eunice…” she attempted to think of something to say but in the end she couldn’t.

There was an awkward moment between the two of them as they ran into silence again. Eunice decided that she would take this moment as a chance to make amends. “I’m sorry I ruined your date the other night.”

Darego looked over at her. “It wasn’t really going anywhere. Besides, you were right. I did need to see that footage as much as I would prefer not watching it.” Noon only nodded in reply. “How come you didn’t want to share a room?” They looked at each other again in silence. “Is it because of what happened?”

“I felt guilty, Teri. And, a part of me felt like… I liked that night, I really did. And after hearing you say you wish that it didn’t happen, I felt as though I would find some conflict with us sharing the room.”

“When I said I wish I didn’t happen, I didn’t mean it against you.”

“What did you mean then?”

“To be honest, I never wanted to be with a coworker in anyway shape or manner. I’ve been attempting on dating other women for a while, but I haven’t had my string of luck. I don’t know, it just… I might have rebounded on you without realizing it. That and, you have a habit of making something out of nothing, and I did not want that.”

There was a moment as Noon took in what Darego was saying. After a moment, Darego placed her hand ontop of Noon’s. “I liked what happened that night, too.”

 

 

“I knew he had to have some practice with knives somewhere before,” Leslie laughed with Phil about the knife throwing.

“He has many talents, he’s also great at cooking. He picked it up after his mother died, and he was great since the beginning. Did he cook?” Phil had actually smiled while telling Leslie that, a couple of beers would do that to Phil.

“No, at least not for me anyway.”

“That’s a shame, he’s bloody good at it.”

Phil took a moment to think about James, but it was interrupted when Leslie asked “Would James lie to make someone feel better?”

“What do you mean?”

“If he wasn’t sure about something, would he just agree with the other person.”

“I’m not entirely sure. He was quiet most of the time, but I know he didn’t agree with me a whole lot on certain things and would just remain blank and quiet.”

Leslie nodded and looked down at his drink. “I fucked up with Alyssa.”

“Oh, no I’m sure you didn’t.”

“No, I fucked up with Alyssa. I had asked James what she thought of me, like if I was a good father to her. He said she did. And now she learned the truth, and I don’t think she’ll forgive me for that.”

Phil sat there thinking of what to say to him. “James doesn’t like me a whole lot either. I think he tries to blame me for his mother’s death. That really took a toll on him. Watching such a young and happy boy suddenly turn quiet and cold on you, I didn’t know what to do.”

“What happened to his mother?”

“She killed herself. In front of him too. I wasn’t there, and I thought she was doing better.” Phil only shook his head. “I shouldn’t have agreed with him to have her take him to feed the ducks.”

“I’m sorry,” Leslie patted Phil’s shoulder for a moment.

“He changed so much. I think I was restraining him somehow. I wish I could see him smile again.”

“For what it’s worth, he never said anything bad about you.” Leslie told him. Even though James never mentioned Phil once, he figured that if James never said anything bad about Phil, where would the harm be in saying that.

Phil looked up at Leslie. “Really?” Leslie nodded. Phil looked at his drink for a moment and straightened up. That did make him feel better.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Noon and Darego go out for dinner after work, Gwen sees a familiar name.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone! Sorry for the little hiatus there, I've gotten really busy and lack of motivation, but I'm getting back to working on this! More to follow suit soon!

Noon looked over at Darego from behind her menu across the table. She wasn’t really sure how she managed to get this date to happen, but she was glad that it was happening. Well, it wasn’t a date, more like going out to dinner with a coworker who you just happen to have feelings for, but what’s the difference in the end?

Darego felt Noon’s eyes fall upon her, and took a deep breath nearly resembling a sigh. “Yes?” She looked back over at Noon.

Noon immediately pretended to act like nothing was wrong, and over-neatly placed her menu down in front of her. “Oh, nothing.”

Darego got that look when she knows something is up but isn’t going to exactly force it out of her. “Alright then.” She looked down at the menu for a moment. “Alyssa’s story seems to be pretty interesting so far.”

Noon perked up, sometime to take her mind off of her current situation with this dinner. “What do you mean?”

“Nothing was premeditated so far. And the obvious theory about her mum and stepfather hold true.” She glanced up at Darego. “What is really interesting is what she said about Gwen and her reaction to her visit.”

“Perhaps she realizes that she loves her mum? I mean, I didn’t get along with my parents when I was a teenager.”

“But did you run away?”

“No, but I also didn’t have her stepfather.”

“Well, I think what must have happened recently has affected how Alyssa views her.”

Noon paused for a moment. She was right, at least Noon could agree from her first hand witness account of the teen’s attempt to run away. “I think her father had a hand in that.”

Darego looked up confused. “What do you mean?”

“When I went in to try and get the two to willingly turn themselves in, her father did a major backstabbing move to them. He called emergency services to catch Alyssa confessing, but he did the call without their knowledge. James found the phone.”

“And that’s when he confessed…”

The two stayed silent for a moment. “The two really cared for each other,” Noon told her. “They asked me if they would be separated, and when they realized it was James’ birthday, Alyssa just responded by saying she would have gotten him a gift.”

“That’s not lining up with Alyssa’s story so far…” Darego thought outloud to herself for a moment. “All that she saying about their relationship is that he doesn’t do much, and she’s just wanting sex.”

They look up at each other trying to put the pieces together, but for now it would be to no avail. “You know what,” Noon interrupted the silence. “Let’s not talk about work right now. How have things been?”

Darego relaxed and nodded in agreement to not talking about work. “Outside of work? It’s been alright.”

 

 

Gwen stood outside in the parking lot of the hotel, not believing her luck at the moment. She had good luck and bad luck today, and she wasn’t sure which one to focus on her. Her daughter was caught, bad luck. She saw her daughter and her daughter was happy to see her, good luck. Tony left her at the station… bad luck.

Everything in her life had started to turn upside down. Her mother told her it was coming, hell even Alyssa said something years ago. But she didn’t want to hear it, and now it has happened.

Thankfully, Gwen would have enough money to stay in town for a couple of days. She already had dinner, and realized she would have to get a phone charger and some things for her stay. She’ll have to call her mum, and oh will she have to hear about her mum being right again. But she was ready for it.

As she walked through the convenience store grabbing some things she would need, her thoughts immediately went to her children… all three of her children. The twins, god those twins would need some major attention. They’re good babies, but a mother like her is not well known for just abandoning her younger children like that. Not when…

Alyssa. Alyssa is the primary focus here. Alyssa is why she is here. Alyssa is why she divorced her father. Alyssa is why she married Tony. Alyssa is why she is suffering so silently but happily doing so. Alyssa is why they are here.

Alyssa ran away.

Alyssa helped murder a man.

Alyssa…

Alyssa…

Alyssa…

“Alyssa…” she muttered as she stared at the cashier’s name tag. The woman looked nothing like her daughter, yet the shared the same name. The much older, and _larger_ woman just looked back at Gwen.

“Yes,” Alyssa the cashier awkwardly said. “Something I can help you with.”

Gwen took a second to come back to reality. “Oh… yes, actually. I’m checking this out,” she placed the items on the counter.

Gwen and this new Alyssa stared for a second, and went on in silence through the usual check out routine.

“I failed her,” Gwen said to herself, even though she might as well be saying it to Alyssa.

After staring at her for a moment, Alyssa just nodded. “Oh, sorry.”

“I failed her, and now she’s gone and got herself in jail.” Gwen started to vent in front of the cashier, who could only stand there and patiently wait for the weird moment to end. “I tried to be a good mother, I really did. She never liked any of it but I kept doing it. I abandoned her to help her. That shouldn’t have happened. I tried to be a good mother, but I just failed her.”

Gwen stopped her rambling after a moment of realizing that she was going off to a random stranger. “I’m sorry.”

“Right…” Alyssa looked at the register then back at Gwen. “You’re total is 38 pounds.”


End file.
